The most distinguished of all OSA Member categories, Honorary Membership is awarded to individuals who have made unique, seminal contributions to the field of optics.
The roster of living Honorary Members demonstrates the high stature of this designation: Milton Chang, Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Elsa M. Garmire, Joseph W. Goodman, John L. Hall, Theodor W. Hänsch, Stephen E. Harris, Robert W. Hellwarth, Nick Holonyak, Donald B. Keck, Herwig Kogelnik, John C. Mather, William D. Phillips, David J. Wineland and Amnon Yariv.
Honorary Members are elected by unanimous vote of the OSA Board of Directors upon nomination by the OSA Presidential Advisory Committee and unanimous endorsement by the OSA Awards Council. The number of living Honorary Members cannot exceed two-thousandths (2/1000) of the total membership of the Society.
Honorary Members receive a complimentary OSA lifetime membership and other special recognitions of their distinguished status, including complimentary OSA meeting registrations and member subscriptions to all OSA journals of their choice.
2020
Milton M T Chang
For his visionary and inspirational leadership in building companies and fostering entrepreneurship in photonics, and his generous, ongoing support of OSA
2019
Elsa M Garmire
For contributions to nonlinear optics and optoelectronics, leadership in linking science and public policy, and for service to OSA
2018
Joseph W Goodman
For fundamental contributions in the fields of Fourier Optics and Optical Information Processing through his research, teaching and classic textbooks
2017
Amnon Yariv
For pioneering scientific and engineering contributions to photonics and quantum electronics that have profoundly impacted lightwave communications and the field of optics as a whole
2017
David J Wineland
For pioneering advances in laser cooling of ions together with
unprecedented control of individual ions in foundational experiments of quantum optics and quantum information
2016
John C Mather
For measuring, with his COBE team, the cosmic background radiation and its anisotropy with amazing precision from 50 to 600 GHz. The temperature of the Big Bang radiation was determined as 2.725 +/‐ 0.001K. According to the Nobel committee the COBE project can be regarded as the starting point of cosmology as a precision science
2015
Nick Holonyak, Jr.
For fundamental, inventive and widely influential contributions to optics and photonics including the visible LED and the quantum well diode laser, technologies underlying solid-state lighting, the internet, and high performance computing
2014
Robert W Hellwarth
For pioneering introduction of Q-switches to lasers and profoundly influential contributions to the science of nonlinear optics, including stimulated light scattering, origins of nonlinear refractive index, photorefractivity and phase conjugation
2013
Stephen E Harris
For pioneering and profoundly influential contributions to the science of light, including optical parametric emission, lasing without inversion, electromagnetically induced transparency, and single cycle optical pulse generation
2012
Donald B Keck
For breakthrough contributions to the field of optical communications, including the invention of the first low-loss optical fiber, and for a history of service to OSA
2011
Jarus W Quinn *
For his exceptional leadership of the OSA as its Executive Director from 1969 through 1994 and the profound influence that he has had on making the society the success that it is today
2010
James Gordon *
For his numerous high-impact, seminal contributions to quantum electronics and photonics, including the first demonstration of the maser
2009
Arthur Ashkin *
For his pioneering work on optical trapping and the development of optical tweezers
2008
Roy J Glauber *
For pioneering work on quantum optics and coherent states
2007
John L Hall
For pioneering work on high-precision laser metrology and fundamental optical tests of physical principles
2005
Herwig Kogelnik
For achievements in several areas of optics and photonics, contributions to lightwave communications by directing industrial research and for leadership in the scientific community
2004
William D Phillips
For development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light
2003
Steven Chu
For development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light
2002
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
For outstanding leadership in quantum optics, from initial studies of optical pumping, through seminal work on sub-Doppler limit laser cooling
2001
Aleksandr Mikhailovish Prokhorov *
For his distinguished contributions and monumental role over the past 45 years in creating and developing quantum electronics
2000
Willis E Lamb *
In recognition of his fundamental and pioneering contributions to laser physics
1993
James G Baker *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1992
George Wald *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1987
Emil Wolf *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1986
Andre Marechal *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1984
Rudolf Kingslake *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1983
Arthur L Schawlow *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1981
John Donovan Strong *
For pioneering work in aluminization of telescope mirrors, development of grating engines, infrared instrumentation and spectroscopy, and atmospheric and planetary physics using balloon-borne equipment
1980
H. Keffer Hartline *
In recognition of the preeminent service he has rendered in the advancement of optics
1972
Dennis Gabor *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1972
Edwin H Land *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1970
Charles H Townes *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1968
Gerhard Herzberg *
In recognition of the preeminent service he has rendered in the advancement of optics
1967
George R Harrison *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1966
Harrison M Randall *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1962
Alfred Kastler *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1958
William F Meggers *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1957
Thomas Smith *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1957
C.E. Kenneth Mees *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1954
Fritz Zernike *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1950
R. A Millikan *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1950
Arnold Sommerfeld *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1944
R. W Wood *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1941
Theodore Lyman *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1933
Edward Bausch *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1933
Charles Fabry *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1922
S. W Stratton *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1916
Charles S Hastings *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1916
Edward L Nichols *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
1916
George E Hale *
In recognition of his preeminent service in the advancement of optics
* Deceased